Worked example 9 — why a virus-infected cell cannot be cleared by antibodies
Point 5 of 9 — Lesson 3: Mechanism of the Immune System (Lines of Defense & Humoral/Cellular Immunity)Question bank: 0 questions (0 with pictures)
05Worked example 9 — why a virus-infected cell cannot be cleared by antibodies
Antibodies circulate in the plasma and lymph and are too large to cross the membrane into a cell; a virus that is inside a cell is hidden from them.
The infected cell, however, displays viral antigens on its surface, so cytotoxic T cells (and NK cells) recognise it and kill the whole cell with perforin.
Thus humoral immunity deals with the free virus outside cells and cell-mediated immunity deals with the virus inside.
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